Saturday, July 8, 2017

A Baker’s Double Dozen of Neglected Russian Stories – No. 90

Paul
Goble

Staunton, July 7 -- The flood of news
stories from a country as large, diverse and strange as the Russian Federation
often appears to be is far too large for anyone to keep up with. But there
needs to be a way to mark those which can’t be discussed in detail but which are
too indicative of broader developments to ignore.

Consequently, Windows on Eurasia each week
presents a selection of these other and typically neglected stories at the end
of each week. This is the 90th such compilation, and it is again a
double issue with 26 from Russia and 13 from Russia’s neighbors. Even then, it
is far from complete, but perhaps one or more of these stories will prove of
broader interest.

5.Boosting Pension
Age Will Give Moscow Large but Short-Lived Infusion of Funds. Experts say that
if Moscow raises the pension ages by several years as it now plans, the
government will get a large but very short term boost in revenues because it
will not have to put money in pension funds. But this boost will rapidly
disappear in the out years, they say (iz.ru/615899/inna-grigoreva/biudzhet-sekonomit-na-povyshenii-pensionnogo-vozrasta).

17.Russia’s Two
Allies Meet Its Two Problems.Russia, it is sometimes said, has only two allies, its army and its
fleet, and only two problems, roads and fools. Those four have now come
together: Military planners want to shift from trains to trucks to move
military equipment about because there are more roads than there are train
tracks and thus it will be harder for an enemy to attack them. But such plans,
as analysts are pointing out, ignore the fact that Russian roads are in
horrific shape and that heavy military trucks will tear them up faster than the
government can fix them (regnum.ru/news/polit/2296968.html).

20.Russian Male Life
Expectancy Slips Further Behind Female Rating.Russian men now live 11.5 years fewer than Russian women, six months
fewer than a year ago and an indication that any efforts the Russian government
have made to reduce mortality rates among working-age males have failed (polit.ru/article/2017/07/05/demography/).In other demographic news, experts say that
Rosstat data on life expectancies in the North Caucasus are the product of
statistical sleight of hand (kavkazr.com/a/dolgoletie-na-bumage/28595211.html).

23.Many Soviet
Citizens Executed After Stalin’s Death were Innocent but Killed to Meet the
Plan.According to a new study, many of the 21,000
Soviet citizens executed by the authorities between 1962 and 1990 were innocent
and in many cases even known to be, but they were killed in order to meet plan
targets handed out by the center (russian7.ru/post/spravedlivyy-sud-kogo-v-sssr-rasstr/?utm_source=infox.sg).

25.Russian Young
People Far Less Altruistic and Concerned about Justice than Many Think. A review of some
122 sociological studies of the attitudes of post-Soviet Russian youth finds
that this cohort is far less altruistic and concerned about justice and far
more pragmatic and selfish than many are now inclined to think (ttolk.ru/2017/07/04/молодёжь-россии-за-комфорт-и-бизнес-п/молодежь-2-3/).

1.Six of Top Eight
Countries Russians Identify as Enemies are Their Neighbors. In the yearly
enemies list, six of the top ten countries Russians name as enemies are
neighbors of their country. In descending order, these are Ukraine, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland, Estonia and Georgia. The only two others to make the list
are the US, which leads, and Germany (estonianworld.com/security/estonia-seventh-yearly-russias-enemies-list/).

2.Ukraine Creates
Territorial Defense Units to Respond to Zapad 2017. Threat. Kyiv has
ordered the creation of special territorial units of defense in response to the
joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises (Zapad 2012) planned for this fall
(belaruspartisan.org/politic/386516/).

4.Russians Fear
Belarus Following Ukraine’s Language Policy.Minsk is following in the footsteps of Ukraine’s anti-Russian language
policy and what Ukraine is doing now, Belarus almost certainly will do soon if
Moscow doesn’t do anything to stop it, according to Russian analysts (lenta.ru/articles/2017/07/01/mova/).

5.Putin Can Never
Leave Donbass – There are Too Many Witnesses for a Hague Trial.According to one Ukrainian commentator, there
is yet another reason to think that whatever he says, Vladimir Putin will never
return control of the Donbass to Ukraine: There are simply too many witnesses
to Russian war crimes and crimes against humanity who could testify in the
Hague (khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1499268442).

7.Russia Moves
Border Further into Georgia. The Russian client statelet, South Osetia, has moved
its border posts further into Georgia, extending its occupation by another 10
hectares.Moscow has denied that this has
happened (agenda.ge/news/82746/eng
and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/305555/).

9.Moscow Sharply
Criticizes Baku for Failing to Protect Russian Citizens. The Russian
foreign ministry has criticized Azerbaijan for failing to protect the rights of
Russian citizens on its territory, a criticism that has raised questions about
the possibility of a new Moscow tilt against Baku and for Yerevan (regnum.ru/news/polit/2297472.html).

12.Only
a Third of Azerbaijan’s 2200 Mosques are Registered with the State.More than 1400 mosques in Azerbaijan remain
unregistered and thus potentially a source of radicalism in Azerbaijan (islamsng.com/aze/news/12825).